We are a new group focusing on different aspects of infectious intracellular protozoan pathogens using Leishmania, Toxoplasma, and Plasmodium as model systems. Our research is focused on different immunological and cellular aspects of parasite biology, that enable these intracellular pathogens to survive within the hostile host environment. My scholarship has rendered around theories and methods of protozoan parasitic diseases with applications to clinical importance. I have contributed significantly to the field of drug resistance to leishmaniasis one of the major emerging problems for India with new cases reported every year. For a better understanding of protozoan-mediated infectious disease, I started working on Plasmodium and Toxoplasma causative agents of Malaria & Toxoplasmosis as an EMBO-Post-doctoral fellow. My post-doctoral scholarship primarily articulates in successfully characterized key factors involved in establishing successful infection and dissemination of apicomplexan parasites into or out of the host. During this period, I also managed a collaborative project with industrial partner UCB Pharma S.A and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to design biochemical assays for therapeutic development. Our present research interest is interdisciplinary in nature, and our lab wants to explore the possibility to establish potent CRISPR-Cas9-based genome editing techniques in protozoan biology, which in turn could be implemented in the characterization of key components of disease pathogenesis & intra and inter-species-transmission of these intracellular pathogens. Another focus of the lab would be to develop biochemical assays for activity-based protein profiling to study parasite biology with a particular view of developing them with potential translational value for pharma industries. This should also serve as the base to challenge the existing problem of drug resistance and the absence of vaccines and help in designing novel drug targets against these pathogens which currently is affecting a huge part of the population each year.

We are looking for two Ph.D. candidates to join our group. So if you are interested in intracellular protozoans and do want to pursue a Ph.D., please get in touch with us.

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